Holiday Festivities

Tis the season for parties and Santa! We had fun at my work holiday party where Nevi got to play with a little girl very close to her age. They made funny faces, chased each other down the hallway and went up and down the stairs too many times to count. Nevi also got to meet Santa Claus in person but truthly wanted no part of him. She was happy to meet him when he was walking out to greet everyone but when it came time to sit in his lap, she panicked. Just like me when I was her age. Maybe next year....

My 33rd Birthday Party

The day after Thanksgiving, the Seal troop rounded up once again but this time to celebrate my birthday. Thanksgiving leftovers were enjoyed (my favorite part of Thanksgiving dinner is to enjoy it over and over again) with a grand finale of birthday cake instead of pumpkin pie. Thank you everyone for enjoying my birthday with me - I feel the love...

More of the Fam

Ring Around the Rosy

The Fam at Thanksgiving in Anderson, IN

It's been a long while since the Colorado Seals traveled at Thanksgiving but we landed in Anderson, IN this year to see Nana & Pop along with all the others... There were 45 beautiful and familiar faces on Thanksgiving Day, all extensions of our family. We enjoyed this reunion and feast in Noblesville, IN at the Lodge, a new and super nice venue thru the Parks and Rec Dept overlooking beautiful green open space (Thanks Don for the Lodge and Thanks Sue for the organizing and mass cooking). It was a perfect day. Even the rain was cleansing and unobtrusive. The food was out of this world, the company somehow was even better and the Thanksgiving Prayer (Thanks Sue) was the cherry on top. Nevi was even able to nap in the Lodge office for a while so we didn't miss a beat.

The traveling was surprisingly easy, as well. Robb, Nevi & I all made it to the airport on time for departure, expecting long lines the day before the holiday but ended up with NO line when checking bags and a reasonable/manageable line for security. We arrived at our gate 2 hours before take off but it not an issue since everything is a fun activity with Nevi. Leaving Indiana was just as easy, just way too early. With the time difference (2 hours difference between Anderson and Lafayette), we figured we woke up at 2am to head back. Yuck, but well worth it (Thanks PopPop for the rides).

It was awesome to watch Nevi bond with everyone and get such warm love and genuine interest/attention in return. I think that this trip was very fulfilling for us all.

Winter hats & ZOO!

The Denver Zoo offers a few free zoo days each year so we partook in their offer last weekend. I, like everyone else in Denver, thought....oh goody...free! Needless to say, it was packed and the parking was crazy! But, we managed a few hours amidst the chaos and enjoyed a few animal displays. The giraffe were probably the most entertaining of the exhibits - they recently had babies who were running around, playing and having a ball. Robb also liked the grizzly bears. In most other animal exhibits we saw, the animals were sleeping or sitting peacefully, so we'd say....'Look., Nevi, a snake!' And she'd look and look and not see a thing that was exciting. We didn't spend a dime that day, but I think next time we go to the zoo, we'll pay full price and spare ourselves the stress. It took us 30 minutes to find our car after the zoo and an additional hour to leave the parking lot. And, as usual, toward the end of our visit, I was REALLY ready to go, feeling emotionally charged seeing those poor creatures in captivity. Seeing Nevi absorb the views and education offered by this place made it worth the hassle and tears.

Nevi LIVE! Winkle Winkle A-B-C

trick or treating cont'd

Trick or Treating!!!!!

We stayed right in our neighborhood for trick or treating this year. Probably went to a dozen homes or so of friends and neighbors who we adore and who adore Nevi. I had so much more fun than I thought I would. She got pretty good at saying Trick or Treat but even better at saying Happy Halloween! And she thanked everyone in sign language after they treated us. It was probably all very strange and new for her but she really did seem to like Halloween- the dressing up in costume, the social component, and she really loved seeing everyone else's costume's, too. The only part that she didn't get into was the candy. She tried chocolate again tonight but sure enough, she spit it right out and did her shiver thing she does when she doesn't like the taste of something. After a long night out on the town, we ended up using all of her candy on the trick or treaters who came to our door once we returned. We had left a caldron of candy ourselves on our front steps while we were away with a sign Robb made saying 'Help yourself to five pieces each!'. We just added our newly inherited candy to the mix and 'poof' it was all gone. I think Robb actually gave away some snacks from his personal stash this Halloween once we ran out...

More YMCA pix and Pumpkin Carving!

We carved pumpkins in the front yard for the very first time this year, because weather permitted. I could really get used to this kind of weather.

Halloween at the Y

We are regular YMCA goers. They had an AWESOME Halloween party the Monday before Halloween, where Nevi was able to sport her RED Crayon costume for the first time. We had an absolute blast. She jumped in the bouncing castle, won some prizes for throwing balls into the caldrons, picked her own very special cookie off a Christmas tree in the Enchanted Cookie Forest (the ONLY quiet room in the Y meant for little ones just like Nevi - it was magical), and she ate her cookie along with a slice of BlackJack pizza. Just one of the kiddos. We met some great folks there and played really nicely with all of the others. She loved it so much that she wore her Crayon costume almost day this last week and, then again, of course, tonight for the big Trick or Treat adventure. More pictures will follow......